Pramodya Wickramasinghe to be tour selector in Bangladesh

By Bipin Dani

Sri Lanka’s chief selector Pramodya Wickramasinghe will travel with the team to Bangladesh, it is learnt. 
According to well-placed sources at Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), the 50-year-old former right-arm fast bowler will act as a selector on tour. 

The Sri Lankan team which is scheduled to leave for Bangladesh on May 8 will play a two-day match (May 11 and 12) before the two Test matches in Chattogram (May 15-19) and Dhaka (May 23-27). 

The squad is unlikely to have Chaminda Vaas as bowling coach even though SLC had already named him as a bowling coach. 

It is understood that negotiations between the two have failed and SLC is likely to send someone else. 
The new head coach Chris Silverwood, who acted as an observer and had one-to-one conversations with some players, will begin coaching and supervising training sessions from Tuesday onwards with those players, who passed their fitness tests on Monday.   

The coach is likely to address his first media interaction this week, it is understood. 

In the meantime, the sports minister Thenuka Vidanamage is likely to announce the members of the new National Sports Council this week. 

“Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara didn’t show interest for a zoom meeting and hence I presume they are not interested. Will form a new committee this week,” the minister, speaking exclusively over telephone from Colombo, 

he confirmed.